Your Right to Know

Mike Halloran was slinging hose and breathing the black smoke as a firefighter in Clark County
just two months ago.

Today, a few months from passing the bar exam, he is Columbus’ newest assistant city
attorney.

City Attorney Richard C. Pfeiffer Jr. hired Halloran to improve training and limit lawsuits and
internal investigations resulting from firefighter misconduct or mistakes. There’s already a
similar post in the Police Division.

Halloran is also charged with helping Fire Chief Gregory A. Paxton set new policies such as
spelling out when armed firefighters on the bomb and arson squads can use force and revamping
extended-leave policies that have left some firefighters on desk duty for years.

• Arson investigator Jeffrey Smith is under internal investigation for an incident in January
when he admitted he pulled a man out of a vehicle at gunpoint while on duty during what police
reported was a road-rage incident.

The incident occurred while Paxton and Department of Public Safety officials were developing the
division’s first-ever written use-of-force policy.

The division has since adopted a use-of-force policy that requires additional training and
certification.

• Paxton and public-safety officials are also drafting a policy on how long firefighters can
remain on light duty, working a desk job while they recover from injury.

A recent
Dispatch investigation found that a lack of policy allowed some firefighters to stay on
light duty for years, costing taxpayers more than $1 million in overtime and wages for firefighters
to backfill those positions.

Fire departments around the country have stricter policies that don’t allow firefighters to
remain on light duty for more than a year.

• Last year, the division could not account for $5,000 in missing funds from a CPR-training fund
because no records were kept.

Pfeiffer said officials hope Halloran’s background as a firefighter will lend credibility to his
job duties.“He will be assisting the Fire Division with whatever their needs are, and I believe he
is very competent.”

Pfeiffer assigned an attorney to the Division of Police who has developed training videos and
training sessions to curb police misconduct and mistakes. Officers have said having a lawyer
stationed at police headquarters to answer questions and discuss policy issues has improved
policing.

Halloran said his background will help “bridge the gap” between policy and what happens on the
street.

“I wasn’t a firefighter in Columbus, so I am still learning their procedures and some language
and just how they operate,” said Halloran, 27.

He said his approach to the job will be that the Fire Division is his client and he will help “
facilitate whatever it is our client needs to do.”

Fire Battalion Chief Patrick Ferguson said, “We’d love to have someone like that here at
headquarters, but right now we are taking baby steps.

“Having Michael on board and his experiences of being a firefighter has helped, and we’ve had
some good conversations with him already.”

Halloran is a certified firefighter until 2016. He said he plans to keep his certification
active for many years.

He said he wanted to be a firefighter and paramedic after the 9/11 terrorist attack. He later
became interested in policy-making and decided to pursue a law degree from Capital University.

He also has a bachelor’s degree in English and biology from Wittenberg University.